Epilogue of By The Roadway
by Terra Khushrenada
Summary: How about this for a short summery: Will not be publishing here any longer. Look it up on Deviant Art.
1. Angels Appear as Demons

**BY THE ROADWAY …EPILOGUE**

HAAAIIII! So Guess what? 'Night Grinned Viciously Back' is officially a living thing with dividing cells LOL ANYONE who's read NGVB **already**, has** already read** **this story**... If you go look at NGVB, you will notice it is A LOT trimmer without these three chapters... ALSO more to the point. So I thought, what the 'ell.

_((Your only warning of the darkness of the theme will be that Acid Bath's 'Venus Blue' was the music that fit the mood for writing this section, or 'Bones of Baby Dolls' by the same...it is a waltz after all... When The Kite String Pops was some of their best work. You could look up Hot Chip's 'The Warning' if you want something lighter and a bit less morbid in the background…))_

_**Angels Appear at First as Demons …to those Dominated by Fear**…_

* * *

…Late Winter of AC 197

The sun crested the eastern hill and its light finally streamed in through the partially opened curtain. Trieze squeezed his eyes tighter to attempt to block out the intrusion and stretched his arms out wide to either side seeking his lover's soft warm form. He sighed when he found nothing but more cold sheets which he turned and wrapped up in a hug anyways, inhaling the traces of her scent.

Of course Lady Une had already gotten up and left for the Preventors headquarters. After a little while he eventually had the courage to open his eyes and deal with the blinding world of the daytime hours.

Trieze got up and started the bath filling.

Some rare days he found it amusing all the effort his uncle's henchmen had put into 'disciplining' him in various insidious ways – since his acquired abilities had gone undiscovered by his captors they had never thought of anything as simple as pushing him into a shower stall with the water running or slowly sifting a bucket of sand over him. Although he would never admit it to even Nitro Mudo, his closest confidant, the rest of the time Trieze Khushrenada couldn't ignore the enormous burden of normal day-in day-out living with the constant background analysis in his mind of every sensory input.

He tried to deal with it as best he could and enjoy what there was to be enjoyed about the peace he'd won for the world.

There was of course the honorary position at the Preventors he had been given with an extra tight handshake and a quiet plea to not actively influence the fragile political reformation that was taking place in the United Earth Sphere. That suited Sir Godrick's son just fine as he was able to work on his own schedule and start focusing on the network of investment companies and funds that his father had set up two decades ago and had gone neglected during the war.

With Dorothy's disappearance after the last battle he had inherited the Catalonia estate that had been separated from the Khushrenada's by his Grandfather and nearly tripled his accounts with all the money his Uncle had made from his war-machines. It fixed any issues that had been ignored for the years he was forced to turn his back on the small financial empire, as well as allowing enough surplus to imminently start several projects aimed to rebuild the torn world.

The Mass-Transit shuttle project his father had been working on before his murder had taken less then two weeks to get approval from every representative of the new legislative body. The fleet included a new set of entry/exit shuttles made from Gundamium that had a far longer lifespan then the ones currently in commission and coated with the same poly-carbonite enamel that had been used on the Gundams themselves but, of course, had that signature Oz look; his creativity extended only so far and designing Epyon had called upon the extent of it.

It would have taken even less time, however they had wanted to make a good public show of it and none of the representatives wanted to give up the PR opportunity of a life time – a photograph shaking hands with Great Oz Colonel on his first Earth-Space promotional tour after coming back from the dead a year after the war. Trieze had revoked the posthumous rank of General himself in deference to his late father, even if many felt he had more then earned it after commanding the Eve Battle.

Dressed in what he deemed a casual work suit and tie combination of black and silver (which many other men would reserve for only the most important of business meetings) Trieze headed for his car, the "Humm'Vee Gundam" – the closest to a refuge he had after the Mobile Suit ban had all the military machines disassembled.

Lady Une typically would drive Marimaya, his daughter, to the local school she was now attending on her way into work since it usually timed out so well. A few occasions Trieze had gone out of his way to take over the responsibility, but he settled on being there to pick her up at the end of the day whenever he wasn't traveling since when he came in early it usually led to him taking a long morning nap in his office with nothing to do.

He was one of the only people who could keep ahead of the mass amounts of paperwork that flooded the newly established bureaucratic system. Trieze was inwardly thankful when the wing that had previously contained his office in the renovated former Romefeller Headquarters had been assigned to a different department of the Preventors administration; he wasn't sure how much he had Lady Une to thank for that but certainly enjoyed the new view on the other side of the building much more.

He always felt better after he'd had a chance to slip into the driver's seat and put on his tinted retinal-interface glasses. Being able to connect up to the Z-PLCs processor almost allowed him to do a total cache dump of all the different threads that had built up in his mind. Even then, it wasn't quite the same as if it was properly hooked into a Mobile Suit's control systems no matter how he tweaked the set-up.

In his messages there was already an alert sent out for a debriefing within the hour, he'd be arriving just in time: _Leave it to His Lady to ensure he was always on time despite his worst habits…_

…_Lady Une lowered the projector screen at the precise moment the hands of the clock moved to signal 11:00, and like clockwork Trieze Khushrenada entered the room and took his seat just as the lights went out and the lamp was turned on. It was a familiar dance between the two that tended to annoy any unfamiliar with his exact view on punctuality – Not being early had been the most defiant he could be with out reprimand under his Uncle's domination and he still hadn't shaken the habit…_

"Our reconnaissance team has located a facility that could have been used by either the Alliance or Romefeller in the past and has since been abandoned. We figured this would be a good way to keep your field skills in shape even if we're not expecting to find very much there. There is still a possibility that it could have been used as weapons store, so each team is going to conduct a sweep of the building…"

Une continued on, but Trieze was distracted by something…

"Excuse me Lady… would you mind expanding the map area three or four frames?" Une stopped and gave a slight nod before turning to the monitor beside her and adjusting the zoom to include a wider field of view, then after a pause, continued her debriefing; carefully hiding her frequent glances towards Trieze who was fixated on the screen.

"…Now if everything is clear, are there any questions before we head out?" She waited a moment before adding, "You're Excellency? ...Mr. Trieze …_Trieze_?"

A minute later when Milliardo kicked the chair leg Trieze snapped to life again.

"Wh – No. No, I have no questions." The assembly of three ex-Gundam pilots as well as Milliardo, Noin and Sally were all staring at him despite the fact that he acted as though nothing had happened at all shuffling through the folder in front of him.

Using the extra attention he cleared his throat and added,

"Actually I would not mind joining you; it would speed up clearing the interior if I were to take over the outer sweep of the building with the forensics team. I would be more suited at finding whatever clues to be found there anyways."

Trieze _Khushrenada_ was volunteering for a low level field sweep? None of the others were willing to openly point out the oddity at work, but the question 'what was he hiding?' circulated the room silently from face to face.

After checking out their weapons and ammunition they loaded onto a trio of choppers that were waiting on the landing pad outside and headed off to the site.

* * *

**One Last Visit…from Hell…**

Trieze took his time getting off the chopper and settling his suit, tie, hair and holster for his favored sidearm; the suppressed Glock 17 with tritium sights whose glow was visibleeven in theblackest room needing no light to recharge; as he headed towards the northern wall where the forensics team covering the outdoor areas was starting to set up for their scouring. The Preventors had followed the Colonial militia's example and used digitized portable displays in order to organize and coordinate date and Trieze was wearing his glasses in order to have a hands free set up since they weren't exclusively designed for just the Z-PLC system.

He patiently went through the motions coordinating the findings and filing them into categories to be reviewed later by whomever would be assigned as the investigating team. Himself, Heero, Noin and Milliardo were some of the few to have gained the distinction and responsibility of such case follow up.

Wu Fei hadn't wanted to be any more then a field agent and Trowa would come down to work with the Chinese pilot and Sally on special assignments which cropped up from time to time that needed a small, elite, coordinated team. World safety was the only thing more important to Trowa then his duties at the circus. Duo was also always moving back and forth between the colonies and Earth, sometimes bringing Hilde along for the ride. He had convinced Quatre, who of course had his hands tied with the Winner estate, to fund an official "metal waste" processing project which made Duo and Hilde Lord and Lady of quite a number of scrap yards throughout the Earth Sphere.

…It was as Trieze rounded the corner, moving ahead of the his team, that he suddenly felt like he was stepping into a dream – the pitch of the rivers roar reverberating off of the concrete building's outer wall coming into tune and actualizing the reality shift. He stood staring out at the chain link fence, topped with barbed wire, which ran right along the rapid rivers edge with a dense forest beyond. With great slowness he turned to regard, and then approach, the simple door that was exactly behind him from that point…

It opened easily, its lock had never been repaired and sure enough, looking to the left just inside the door the electronic mechanism had been smashed by a close grouping of three bullets.

In a daze, Trieze continued down the concrete hallway passing by the markings of where many other bullets had dug into the soft stone-like building material; he didn't even consciously know why he was going where he was going…

He didn't want to know why, he just put one foot in front of the other moving deeper into the darkness.

* * *

(so you don't get confused this is everyone else… Milliardo/Noin team, Duo/Heero team, Wu Fei/Sally team)

The groups sweeping the interior were shocked by what they found as they passed beyond the main entrance and into the main network of hallways on the first level – the stench of rotting death thick in the air.

Most of the rooms had been converted into holding cells, and it was obvious that while few had been occupied; few of those that had inhabited that hell hole had ever made it to daylight with their corpses still rotting in the chains that held them. Rats had been to feast on much of their flesh. Most had been torched assumedly in the process of abandoning the location.

Milliardo did his best to hold his own breath as he kept a reassuring hand on Noin's back as she vomited in a corner. It was all a little much for him as well and wasn't surprised when Duo came around the corner holding his flashlight high. Heero had probably rather the loud-mouth American descendent deal with the scene somewhere he didn't have to listen to it. Heero could ignore a lot, but it didn't change the fact that he was feeling the same way as his more vocal peer from L2 inside.

"Just SICK! This place is dead alright – I can't believe this stench! Heero's moved on to the lower floor, we found the main hall it seems, he figures we should all meet up there and try and figure out what exactly we want to do about this… _place_." He certainly looked like he was doing his best not to go green in the face himself.

"Right. Noin are you sure you don't want to go outside and help Trieze?"

She shook her head and followed Duo back the way he'd come with Milliardo trailing behind, at the ready to respond should their assessment about how safe the area was proved wrong.

It was indeed a main hall and the lights were still working in this section. It was complete with various contraptions of which many were still covered in the blood of the victims to the demonic play that transpired. The three moved around the large clear cylindrical tank, over a story tall that looked as though it had held water at one point, and went up the metal stairs to the luxuriously furnished office that overlooked the morbid stage.

Heero was standing before a wall mounted screen that was displaying the volume mute across its bottom superimposed over the horrific and bloody scene playing out in its background. Below the screen was a library of disks, all neatly contained, labeled and organized on shelves. Some held several names across the cover, others only a single name, and here and there would be a set of two or three sharing the same title…

* * *

…Trieze Khushrenada rounded the last corner – his senses numb to the _Vicious_ stench in the air and flashlight unneeded for his eyes to see in the extremely dim lighting. He could hear the individual echo of each step he took off of every surface in the corridor, as well as the distant disturbances of the teams that were flushing through the building frightening the rats in front of them. He halted suddenly mid-step sensing he was about to go too far and stood at attention steeling his nerve to look and turn to his right.

He took a deep breath or two before he did so: The doorway hung open like a gaping black mouth, the all too familiar darkness that had consumed his very soul time and again reaching out.

He didn't need light or even eyes to see the room beyond; he knew it with every part of his body. His face having been slammed into its walls, his arms shackled to its ceiling, his knees scraped along the floor washed with his own blood and urine. It was the home he would never admit to knowing.

The flood of memories and sensations that were jerked from his subconscious were too much and caused a complete mental system error. He choked a moment before his eyes rolled back and his body was stricken with the shuttering pulses of a full seizure. He crumpled to the ground still twitching…

* * *

…The others debated the different options they had available as members of the Preventor Organization to handle with the gruesome find. As they waited for Wu Fei and Sally to arrive, Milliardo's eye was caught by the largest set of disks on the shelves. They were simply labeled with the number '13' and he had just switched the disk bearing the last hours of 3 unfortunate individuals that Heero had randomly selected for the first of the mystery set when they all simultaneously received a message alert. Noin was the fastest draw.

"Huh? From Trieze… just says: '_Zero'_?" She looked puzzled at the others as they heard a shout from the other room setting them all in motion.

Milliardo was the only one who remained transfixed as the rest scrambled out… He watched a person all too familiar to him dragged up into position on the platform over the very tank now behind him outside the office…

…_His feet were already tied together and the masked men bound his upper body and arms tightly with a heavy chain keeping both his hands drawn up to his neck before a noose was looped around it, tightened and the whole bundle unceremoniously dumped off the edge to splash down and sink under the water. Bubbles could be seen rushing up to the surface as prisoner's dark form slowly started to thrash under the water before he was hoisted up into the air. The brief moment from when his head cleared the surface till he was lifted fully from the water was the only break there was between a state of drowning and that of slow strangulation._

_The hands of his old friend tightly gripping the rope of the noose, desperate to keep the pressure from collapsing his fragile windpipe, before being plummeted back down to be swallowed by the water once more_…

…the time stamp put the recording perhaps only a week after Trieze had assumed command of Oz – the same night Zechs had achieved the fame of being the fastest ACE Oz pilot to date… (ch7BTRw)

* * *

Sally had rounded the corner just in time for her flashlight beam to fall on Trieze Khushrenada as he collapsed to the floor outside the doorway to one of the cells – her device's message alert going off almost simultaneously.

The ex-Oz Colonel had slipped into unconsciousness by the time she reached him. It was her cry that the others came running to; sound carried easily through the corridors – Wu Fei being one of the first to arrive but holding back a considerable distance sensing it was nothing he could stab at.

She quickly checked him over for injuries and removed his glasses. They were all aware of his "talents" by now but it still didn't help her to determine the problem when the pupils on his back-rolled eyes were indeed constricted to nothing when she pealed back the lids to gain a diagnosis.

The group from the main office finally reached the scene and Noin rushed forwards and slid to a knee next to the two.

"What happened to him!"

Sally shone her own flashlight into the room Trieze had been standing outside…

It showed the dried bloody wear of an occupant but lacked a lump of rags, bones and decomposing burnt flesh. The pieces, from the way he had collapsed to tending to the man's health two years ago in the Sank Kingdom, were slowly sketching into a theory even if she had yet to gather any evidence to back it up.

"We need to get him out of here right now and back to the Headquarters, Where's Zechs?"

No matter how much some people KNEW his name was in fact Milliardo, they couldn't get over identifying the tall blond with his ACE Pilot name. Noin, who had taken a hold of Trieze's hand, looked back down the hallway to realize her partner hadn't followed them.

"I….?"

Sally hardly about to wait, already was radioing into one of the choppers to be ready for lift off.

"Wu Fei! See that this cell gets swept and analyzed FIRST! I don't care if you have to deliver the samples to the lab yourself, I want them processing in the hour!" With Noin's help, they each took an arm over their shoulders, and rushed Trieze's unconscious form outside.

Back in the main office, Milliardo finally brought himself to turn off the TV and put the disk away hearing the crackle of Sally's commanding voice over the radio. He removed a large sized evidence bag from his back pocket and took the entire set of disks bearing the '13' mark, before heading out after Sally and Noin to accompany his old friend back home. Heero, Wu Fei and Duo were remaining behind with the rest of the Preventor team to finish cataloging the building before they could begin clean-up.

* * *

_("It is about Fear, and what that does to the mind. Even my fears for you put me in a position where I might not have opened my mind to all the possible solutions. To overcome fear and be able to simply endure the suffering that others inflict…" he gave a heavy sigh, "…perhaps, despite the trials you have had to face so far, you now truly understand the strength that is required to be a Pacifist._

_I know that despite all **my** talents: it is something I will **never** be able to do." ~ Trieze G. Khushrenada XIII Ch4)_

Trieze had no idea when it was or what had happened to land him in what looked like the Preventors Medical wing. He knew it was bad when Lady Une was there by his side and _**both**_ Noin_ and_Milliardo were in the room with Sally herself, the head of the medical department, furiously working at the computer next to his monitoring station.

"Was I shot?" He rasped out.

His throat was dry and had a terrible taste in it he could only describe as "road kill", he couldn't feel any excessive pain from a wound but the bright lights were quickly giving him a headache. Lady Une took hold of his hand and squeezed hard, the look of fear and worry on her face didn't help to answer his question, nor did the fact that neither Milliardo nor Noin were willing to volunteer an answer. Sally finished with a conservative flourish and then got up to talk to Trieze finally.

"No, you were not shot. However, I do need you to do me a favor and try not to panic. You're a very calm individual so I'm going to try to be as direct as possible. I **do** need you to answer a few questions and tell me exactly what you can remember about _today_. Before that I just need to be sure, can you tell me what your name is?"

Trieze swallowed hard and did his best to adhere to her previous request to not to let the maelstrom of whirling thoughts rise up to drown his judgment. It's never good when people have to start by asking if you remember your own name.

"My name is Trieze Godrick Khushrenada the Thirteenth – Son of Sir Godrick Trieze Khushrenada the Eighth and Marquis Alicia Wallace von Scot."

Doctors develop a strange sense of humor many times to deal with situations that could cause extreme emotional damage in the long term. Sally couldn't help the inward smile at the aristocratic response that was that bit more thorough then the predictable first and last with the occasional prized middle or rank added on. From his confidence she was sure he could go on, following either bloodline back as reasonably far as anyone would expect of someone who had an ancestral focused upbringing.

A few more questions about the people in the room and the general scheme of recent history, including his daughter, checked out that his long term memory had been unaffected.

Trieze stalled out completely when he got to the point in his morning when he had sat down for the debriefing and Sally was quick to distract him as soon she saw his eyes starting to slip out of the normal spectrum of typical human anatomy. She had Lady Une switch off the lights, not only to give herself room as the woman was hovering protectively over her fiancé, but also so that she could pull out a flashlight to take a better look at the phenomenon.

"…can you leave them off?" he dared to ask when Sally finished and clicked the flashlight off.

"Are you _able_ to see in dim lighting with your eyes in this state?" Trieze was taken aback by how skeptical she was. He hardly looked into the fact that the pupil would typically expand to allow enough light in to see under low light conditions, not contract.

"Yes, I always can see very well in dim environments…" he couldn't help glance at Noin and Milliardo before hesitantly adding, "I… try to avoid bright lighting as much as I can since, after a while, it can get too intense…"

Sally had picked up on the cue,

"Noin, Zechs… Could you wait out in the hallway," then, she turned back to Trieze, "It is up to you if you'd like anyone in here – you are a patient after all so the same rules apply as at any hospital."

Even Trieze knew full well that no one would_ever_ ask Lady Une to leave his side lest the Lt. Colonel reemerge and strike them down where they stood,

"Now, Please Trieze, the more you can tell me the more we can help you… are there any other things that get 'too intense' for you?"

Trieze was grateful for Une's hand holding his own, he couldn't meet Sally's eye as he named the best list he could.

"Watching large unorganized crowds of people… Walking barefoot on grass, sand and sometimes carpeting, even seeing someone pouring sand or small grains of anything is uncomfortable at times… Heavy rain, showers can be pretty unbearable and crickets are terrible…" He did look up at Sally frowning, "Why though? What happened to me this morning?"

Sally took a deep sigh and glanced up to check how Une was doing with all this, the other woman's face gave away nothing. She decided she might as well get down to it since she had promised to be direct.

"What you don't seem to be able to recall is that after you came into work this morning, there was a debriefing session for doing a weapons sweep at a recently unearthed facility. You asked Lady Une to widen the map frame; can you remember why you did that?"

Sally had already gone over much of the evidence since she had given Trieze an aid to keep him unconscious; despite Lady Une's skepticism that it was necessary; until they were ready to give him what answers they could. During that time she had sworn Wu Fei and Milliardo to secrecy – the only two other then Heero who were allowed to directly handle the evidence concerning the matter now that the entire operation had come under the jurisdiction of personal confidentiality ethics as soon as the DNA results from the cell had come back positive.

His answer was not unexpected as he furrowed his brow pushing into the hazy place his mind didn't want to go near.

"By the roadway… that is where she found me... the range was a day's walk from the facility." (((^_^ Oh the great circle… not quite back to the beginning yet though!)))

"That's why you asked to come along, right?" Trieze looked more and more lost as they continued, his still constricted eyes going vacant.

"No…? I… I do not remember that being one of the reasons… I just wanted to get some fresh air, not much to do inside."

"So is that why you wanted to be in charge of the exterior sweep?" He turned to stare at Sally Po. It was obvious that it was difficult for him to come to grips with the fact that he was still drawing a blank when he tried to think of the details of the field mission.

"I honestly do not know. Please, what happened to bring me here?" Sally carefully chose her words unknowing of how the man was going to take the news she had for him,

"You wandered off from the exterior sweep team and entered the building through a broken back door. Outside of one of the holding cells you went into a seizure and then unconscious."

Trieze gave no reaction at all.

"You think it was caused by being in that place." Sally wished she didn't have to answer that.

"I'm afraid not, Colonel. While it's obvious the trauma you suffered there might have triggered it early," It was a very heavy sigh, "something like this has been building for some time. It might have only been a matter of a few weeks or even just days before something like this happened on its own. I've done a scan and double checked it as well, even _unconscious_ your mind is running far hotter then it should. It doesn't even compare to the scan histories I had sent over from the other two test pilots who have been receiving full time psychiatric care since the incident. The fluctuating threshold levels for your neural-net are unlike anything that's ever been recorded. A human brain isn't made to handle that kind of constant heavy activity. Most likely the probability and frequency of the episodes are only going to increase each time one occurs. There are already early warning signs that such a breakdown is slowly building up again."

Trieze hated it every time someone had to point out that he wasn't up to 'human' standards anymore. The image of his self made of wires and metal with no blood left to bleed was a nightmare that visited him on numerous occasions. Sally turned and picked up his chart containing much of the information she'd been compiling since they'd returned to the Headquarters and continued,

"Heero was able to dig from the Lords of Plague Database some of the old notes on the system you tested, the Zero Pilot Lag Control. He's still working to find more specific details about its design and especially whatever he can on the pre-conditioning drug that was used during the first test. Even without that information it's clear the system was designed as a _military theory_without any concern for how it would affect the lifestyle of a Pilot outside the Mobile Suit. For example the constriction of your eyes, as a symptom by itself if it continues to go untreated could lead to blindness in just a few more years. Considering how crucial the retinal interface is for your mind to be able to link up with the system and function properly…I doubt I have to explain what that experience would be like for you."

The thought of that smothering blackness starving his mind permanently of so many of the details it fed upon caused Trieze's shoulders to shake and shutter, jaw clenched, his breaths stunted gasps. Lady Une was the only person in the world that could recognize the invisible tears for what they were and responded imminently pulling Trieze's head to her chest; holding him there protecting his face from view till the dry, silent sobs eased into deep even breaths.

Sally couldn't help but add the lack of tear production down to her list of ailments to be addressed while Noin and Milliardo exchanged glances in the hallway. They had been working with Sally and were aware of parts of the situation but could only imagine what was being said in the room beyond the closed door. Trieze finally drew back from Lady Une's embrace composed once more,

"How could these things even be treated?" Sally took a deep breath, glad that he was already looking for the positives.

"We are going to have to start by doing an actual study of what is going on neurologically and how that gets affected when your actively connected to the system. There are medications that have very few side effects and would keep your eyes properly dilated. You could start taking them right away; with caution of course since it seems to be a reactive change to the lowering of threshold levels in your neurons. Hopefully we can figure out a way to alter the current pattern or re-stabilize the neurochemistry. If not we might have to fall back on treating the attacks with the same tactics for epileptics prone to grand-mal seizures. I from what I've seen so far it doesn't seem like it would need anything as drastic as surgery but at that point therapies such as Electro-shock –"

The Doctor was cut short.

Her patient was more then halfway down the hallway before Milliardo caught up to him with his longer stride and tackled him to the ground. He was struggling violently to get out from under the Ex-ACE Pilot, who couldn't help relate it to the last time he'd had to drag Trieze kicking and screaming into a hospital bed. At least, Trieze would have been kicking and screaming that time if he hadn't already lost a great deal of blood.

"NO! NOT AGAIN! GET OFF! NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED! IT'S ALWAYS BEEN **YOUR** FAULT! LET ME GO YOU _FUCKING __**PACIFIST**_!"

Trieze's completely uncharacteristic enraged screams quickly drew out an audience. Milliardo held onto the thrashing man with everything he had in him – By those words he knew exactly what Trieze fully had in mind at the moment.

Lady Une's shriek of "NO!" was all the warning the desperate man had before he felt the sting of Sally Po's needle delivering the dose of tranquilizer. Milliardo was reluctant to accept that the drugs had actually knocked the man out even if his whimpers of "It's not fair" ceased. He only backed off, keeping himself between Trieze and the exit, when Une rushed over to drop protectively over Trieze.

They all knew they were in trouble when she got up and turned on Sally, every trace of "Saint Une" evaporated from her personage.

"What the HELL do you think your trying to do!"

The audience (many ex-Oz re-employed) quickly vacated the hallway, afraid of any repercussions of staying long enough to be recognized later. Sally had never been a member of Oz and had quite a strong personality her self, but it was easy to recognize there was nothing to be gained trying to make a stand against the woman's wrath.

"I had no idea he would react so strongly to the news, believe me Une, I only want to be able to help."

"With _**more**_ drugs and _**shock therapy**_?"

"We need to keep an open mind, if there is any other way I'm sure it will be a much better option. The level of currant it takes to artificially induce a seizure is no where near enough to cause pain to a patient and the life-style improvement for someone with epilepsy is enormous."

"He is NOT _suffering_ from _**epilepsy**_!" Sally knew better then to try and argue with Une about the specifics of epilepsy's definition.

"Then please, just help us to find out what he IS suffering from? I'm sure we should probably get him back to a bed and keep him restrained for his own protection."

"NO!" The syllable cracked in her throat and Une swallowed hard, "He will not be **kept**. I'm taking him home, you can see to him there. I will not stand to see him treated like that again."

Sally suddenly understood what she had been overlooking the whole time in her attempts to deal with the situation: the secret lives of the Oz high commanders.

She bit her lower lip looking down as Lady Une attempted to throw Trieze's arm over her shoulder to carry him by herself. When she was stopped by Milliardo the two had a momentary stand off; unaware which side he would support.

"Une… Midi, it would be foolish to deal with this all on your own. You already have a lot more responsibilities to take care of these days then you used to. You know there are other things that need your attention right at this moment" She was about to argue with him but was cut short. "Someone is going to have to stay with him _at all times_ until we find that better solution and I know how to drive the HVG. Noin, can you grab a stretcher out of there?" He turned his attention back to Une after he saw Noin nod and duck into one of the rooms, "I'm sure we can work out a schedule and make sure his Excellency is looked after."

Lt Colonel Une was finally defeated and helped the two get Trieze onto the stretcher before walking out with them to see him off before she went to her office to try and get the rest of the work she had to do that day done early.

She had already called up Susan, the mother of one of Marimaya's friends from school, and explained that there was an emergency going on that meant she wasn't sure if either Trieze or her self were going to be able to leave work. She had asked if Susan could do them the huge favor of letting the girl stay at their house after school, possibly even sleepover. Having no idea what the man would want his daughter to know about what was going on, she had merely told Susan to reassure Mari that everything was under control and not to worry about it too much.

She wished she felt that confident now.

* * *

_**Newfound Freedom in Peace…?**_

Trieze woke feeling very groggy and he wasn't surprised to see Lady Une lying next to him on the bed in the dim room.

"Am I going to be late for anything?"

"No." She wanted to cry so badly right then, it was as if he hadn't even realized the war was over, "Trieze… Milliardo and Sally Po are outside right now… they want to talk to you again."

He turned to her with his eyes wide.

"That was not …a nightmare?"

Une moved forwards and embraced him with her whole body wrapping one leg across his and kissed across his face almost like she was begging.

"It's going to be ok – I will not let them do _anything _to you unless you wish it. …But if they're willing to try and find a way you can be happy, what's the harm in letting them try? …for Mari?"

He held her steady with a light hand against the side of her face and kissed her back, settling on his side to face her. She could feel him start to cry again as he buried his face under the nape of her neck wrapping his arms around her; He was more then aware that he could no longer afford to act carelessly…or selfishly. She rested her cheek against his soft ginger hair a few moments before he pulled away to stare questioningly into her chocolate brown eyes,

"Where is she?"

"At her friend's house, Danielle – Susan still feels like she owes you a lot for helping with the restraining order for her ex-husband. I told her there were some emergency issues at work… I didn't want to worry her too much so I never said anything about you… …getting sick…"

Trieze was calming as the groggy feeling of the drugs began to wear off.

"Then…" He searched her face drawing courage from the devotion written across it, "…lets see what they can find. I suppose I should call Mari before it gets too late, if it isn't already that is. You are right we should not worry her. I can guess that I will have more then enough free time to sit down and explain things to her now..."

Lady Une looked down towards their feet.

"Sally has had you suspended on medical concerns." Trieze lifted her chin up and kissed her lips once more.

It was easier to feel calmer himself being able to focus on reassuring his lady, his love, it had always been that way. It was one of the few reasons he had even been able to bear the nearly three years Dermail's men had regularly, sometimes on a whim, taken him away for 'treatment'.

Une hadn't said a word about the hidden sound proof room with a 5' diamater tunnel cut deep back into one wall when the building had been renovated into the Preventor's Headquarters feeling it was better if it was never found. Even now she was still cursing herself for having let Trieze go out on the field assignment. Even though she had been completely unaware of the 'off site' location prior to today and hardly would have thought to look for it, Lady Une was convinced that some how she should have known – that this might have been avoided even if all evidence said otherwise.

Trieze stroked his fingers through her long soft hair,

"That is fine. Now, it would be rude to keep them waiting much longer…" Trieze gently pushed Une's shoulder down and slid over her to stare down into her eyes. "…unless you were thinking of keeping them waiting _**much**_ longer."

He of course had that grin on his face she knew too well. The man had certainly come around alright. Une gave him the typical glare she reserved for when he was being inappropriate before wriggling out from under him.

"I'll send them _in_."

She went to the door and called the two in from the hallway after turning on a floor lamp to brighten the room to a comfortable level for all parties. Trieze assumed a dignified position sitting up with his back propped up against the pile of pillows at the head of the bed.

"Let me guess," Milliardo was the first to speak with a bemused smirk on his face, "You're absolutely not, _in any way_, going to express your appreciation for our concern?"

Trieze Khushrenada closed his eyes and pretended as if it were very difficult for him to admit,

"You are wrong, actually. I am very grateful for your swift action in my moment of panic," He opened his eyes to look slyly at his old friend, "…This time that is."

Milliardo could only cross his arms over his chest, looked down shaking his head and chuckling silently. A Khushrenada never backed down once they had made up their mind on something. Trieze did look to Sally Po with a much more serious expression.

"I am very sorry for running out on you. It was most uncouth, you must forgive me." Trieze brought his right arm across his chest and bowed forwards to seal the apology.

Sally hesitantly stepped forwards, careful not to alarm Lady Une.

"It's quite alright; I understand that this kind of news can be very difficult to deal with. I want to assure you that I'm investigating every possible solution and the ones I outlined before…" She couldn't help glancing at Une, "Are based on solely treating the symptoms. We are going to do our very best to hold that as a last resort. Even then we will not take any action without your permission, but I can not revoke your suspension until you can be cleared as 100% fit for duty. There are laws to be followed after all."

Trieze gave a heavy sigh,

"What kind of testing would be necessary for you to ascertain a proper treatment?"

Sally moved closer and sat lightly on the corner of his bed,

"Well… I'm sure that much of it will be very tedious for you at worst. We are going to have to do a number of cognitive functioning tests along with monitoring neural activity, but you might even enjoy some of it. We will need to test some of your limits after all and in order to get the most scientifically accurate results I have already put in the request to re-build a Mobile Suit cockpit for medical purposes…"

Trieze Godrick Khushrenada's eyes lit up like a boy being told that this year they would be getting presents for Christmas _**AND**_ the _eight _days of Hanukkah!

Milliardo was chuckling again – he had told Sally she should make sure to mention that part and wished he had a camera to treasure the look on his face forever. It wasn't going to be that hard to convince the ex-Oz Colonel to cooperate now.


	2. Fairy Tale Awakening

**The Fairy Tale's Reawakening… a little bruised, scar ridden, tainted and gothic… but sure enough, Peace at last… Early Spring AC197**

"_**I wait for the rain… to wash who I am…**" – Infected Mushroom - I Wish_

* * *

Une was awoken by a strange sound…

She had gone home, had dinner with Mariemaia, wrapped up a few details about the household chores with the Castle's Maid Staff and went to bed.

Trieze had gotten completely wrapped up the last few weeks in working with Sally Po on "The Solution" as it was now referred to ever since they had finally tested enough possibilities to find a "permanent prescription" for his "ailments". Une was more then aware that he would spend as much extra time as he could in the Piloting simulator that had been reconstructed and wouldn't be surprised if he spent _all night_ at the Headquarters even if they'd finished the testing for that day. He was _**only**_ 26 years old after all.

…the sound however was that of running water.

It was _**not**_ the deep sopping splashing of a bath tub filling, but the fluctuating disturbance of the cascading rush of a shower head. She cautiously got up sliding her personal sidearm out from between the mattress and box spring and approached the partially open bathroom door. Then gently pushed the door open, standing back, ready to raise and fire.

She was absolutely shocked to see Trieze; fully clothed and wearing a new pair of smaller vaguely blue-tinted lenses with an elegant gold frame that perfectly complemented his hansom angular aristocratic looks capturing them; standing_** under**_ the shower stream. _At least_ they _would have been_ hansom angular looks if he didn't resemble so much of a drenched, deranged _lunatic_ gazing at his hands as the water cascaded onto and around them.

"What are you ON!"

Une's mouth was hanging open when Trieze turned, finally noticing her.

"I am on nothing at all Midi! It _works_!"

The Ex-Colonel was so much more animated then she'd ever known him to be, even when he'd been in a Mobile Suit. She followed his glance to a small digital device lying on the back of the toilet with a tiny LED blinking blue. He coughed when he noticed the pistol in her hand, a worried look on his face.

"I woke you didn't I?"

Lady Une looked at the gun and then dropped it into a high basket shelf just inside the door before walking over to stand just outside the stall with her arms crossed.

"How does it work? Should you be getting those _**wet?**_"

"I could have the processor on right now too… could even go for a long swim... in theory at least; I did not want to risk damaging it before I really was able to test the systems out properly…"

He was still enjoying the now exhilarating thrill of being able to feel the water rushing over his skin, not the painful bite of every fluctuating pulse of pressure from the falling stream of separating droplets.

"…And that's why you've ruined a 6,000$ suit?"

Trieze frowned at her after looking down at his jacket and pants.

"The shoes cost more; why would the suit matter? It's just water." He laughed freely; a very strange sound that Une had not heard from him, "Just water!" She was further unimpressed when, wrapping her up in a soaking wet hug, he pulled her into the stall with him. He went on over flowing with excitement gently kissing away at Lady Une's face and neck, "That woman is brilliant! We've linked up a few monitoring devices that mimic a Mobile Suit's system check and mapped out individual drives to simulate the same digital schematic as the original Z-PLCs interface! True there are certain things I will have to keep up with to make sure my eyes can take the inevitable stress, but it should be able to extend them to a normal lifespan again!" Trieze's back blocking her from most of the down pour but his already drenched cloths pressed against her were soaking the night gown. "Blood pressure, consistency, glucose/metabolic levels, heart rate, sensory feed-back, kinetic processor, full visual scan and stats… or…" He slipped his hands around to grasp her round ass causing her to arch against him, pulling back to stare gleefully into her eyes, "…I can turn it OFF! …My mind stays within an idling state."

He was waiting for her to be happy for him, he wanted to celebrate and she hardly was going to take that away from him… but some how she didn't feel relieved at all – she felt worse. By the time Trieze had both of them undressed and under the sheets he had finally decided he couldn't ignore the obvious signs that Une wasn't really enjoying herself as much as she was pretending to any longer.

He had hoped she was just tired and now gave a long sigh and a thoughtful review of her features cocking his head to the side,

"It is too late to be doing this isn't it? You do have a lot of work to do tomorrow before the Romefeller Ball, I doubt you want to be running late… and you can _not_ wear your hair up anymore."

He kissed her passionately one last time as he drew away and then pulled her back into a close cradling hug. Une did feel a little bit relieved now, but was also very flustered by the sudden turn around of his attitude. Was he just playing with her?

"Colonel, I have never been late to _anything_. You really mean to tell me that you're going to just fall asleep _like that_?"

It was obvious that she wasn't referring to the glasses he was still wearing – they had a considerable wireless range. Trieze nuzzled her,

"Hmmmm…. You are right. I think I need a _shower_… that is unless …you would like one right here?"

Lady Une squirmed around and stared at the evilly grinning man incredulously.

"Your _**EXCELLENCY**_! How can you SAY that?"

He laughed and kissed her again as he started to slide out of the bed,

"You should be thankful you never met my father…"

He disappeared into the bathroom and the sound of the raining water came filtering out once more.

* * *

(The next day…)

Une was startled while she was reviewing her presentation notes before the general administrative meeting they were having that day when someone came up behind and wrapped their arms around her depositing a folder of paperwork in front of her. It could only be one person, of course, when Trieze Khushrenada leaned around to put a kiss on her cheek; the scent of rose permeating off of him. Lady Une couldn't help blushing as Noin, Heero and a few other Preventor members were already in the room.

"You're more then 5 minutes _**early**_."

"Is it not wonderful? I would have been earlier but I stopped by your office and did these reports for you."

Une gave an exasperated sigh looking through the bundle of paperwork before turning to give him a dry look. She knew he would hardly make an error on such a simple task: that wasn't what was irking her.

"Trieze… You really don't need to show off."

Trieze looked puzzled; he had meant to make up for the night before and thought she would appreciate the extra time he just bought her for that afternoon.

Sally Po arrived just then and he figured it was best to leave the woman alone if she was being bothered so obviously by some intangible thing. He excused himself and went over to sit next to the former Alliance Major – at least she was concerned to know how well their plan was working out.

* * *

_...Drama Bomb, Exploding...Part 1_

"Midi! What has gotten into you? Do you _not want_ to marry me at all?"

The two of them had just gotten home and were still in the expansive entrance hall.

"Trieze, what I'm trying to tell you is that I don't know what I want!" She turned away as he took a few steps towards her trying to reach out to her.

"But Midi... don't you see? That's the beauty of it, you don't _have_ to know what you want! You will be able to have _anything_ you want, everything! What could possibly be wrong with that?"

Trieze started laughing in disbelief that this was even happening right now. He'd come back from the dead, he'd reclaimed his daughter and he'd_ still _stuck to his word to remain faithful to Lady Une in return for_ all _her loyalty – Yet, he could swear he was about to get dumped. He powered down the external processor and removed the gold frame and blue-crystal interface lenses to put them away in there protective case with a sigh; Some times it was better to be a little inhuman.

"Right, anything I want. Just like you." She glared at him over her shoulder.

"It is not my fault that I know what I want and have the means to get it. Perhaps if you were not so indecisive we would not be having this conversation right now."

"Indecisive! Trieze I'm the head minister of the Preventors Crime Bureau, its my _job_ to make decisions!" Une turned to face him fully now; finally deciding to make a decision, "What I don't know is if I _want_ to be married to a man who's likely to continue cheating on me the rest of my life!"

Trieze's jaw dropped.

"_CHEATING?_ What do you mean~!" With both hands he directed attention to his prized (comfort-sized) glory sleeping in its crotch. "THIS has not been _anywhere_ you are unaware of!"

It was her turn to start laughing at that,

"Oh what a _perfectly_ diplomatic lie."

"Midi Une your being absurd!"

"Am I? Am I really, _Trieze_ Khushrenada? I mean sure you told me you were close to Noin when she was your student, but you NEVER told _me_ that you slept with her! You never said a word about having been MARRIED before, or having a _daughter_, just 'oh sorry about all that, actually I'm not dead, by the way...will you _marry_ _me_?' What sane female would actually say _yes_ to that?"

Trieze genuinely looked hurt now and couldn't meet her eye,

"...I thought it was romantic."

"In the middle of the wreckage of the president's mansion, with a man you killed still twitching less then 5 feet away? I _bet_ you did. In fact I bet you thought fucking me the first time in a Leo cockpit was _romantic._" she scoffed.

"Of course I do! It was the archetype for the pinnacle of military technology! Y_our _acting like it was some cheap motel I took you to!"

"Like you know _anything_ about cheap motels!"

Trieze's eyes narrowed, her impossible attitude was starting to make him angry,

"Forgive me, I forgot I was speaking to the expert on fucking in cheap motels," She flushed red as her old uniform, but he continued on keeping his voice level. "Besides if you will remember Une, my _uncle_ hired you, it is not as if I would go telling you _every_ little secret of mine. Leia is dead now, and Lucrezia is to marry Milliardo Peacecraft; I do not see how I could be cheating on you with either of them."

"Oh and what about Susan? You do spend a lot of time with her now that she's gotten that divorce."

"Yes, because I like spending time with my daughter and _Susan'_s daughter happens to be a very good friend for her to have. Just because she came to me for help with a restraining order does not mean I'm making her _pay_ for it. Besides, she's nearly a decade older then me."

"Right, and how about all those nights you spent over at the headquarters with Sally Po? Kind of a familiar scenario when she was caring for you in the Sank Kingdom, wasn't it? Are you _sure _it doesn't count _just _because I was in a coma?"

Trieze threw his hands up and then raked them back through his hair as he dropped heavily into one of the ornate couches arrayed for guests waiting to be greeted upon entrance to the mighty castle.

"For the love of my ancestors, Une! That woman _still _hates me for the New Edwards incident! She gives Wu Fei a run for his money when it comes to holding grudges against a person! The only reason we were working late nights at the headquarters, is because she had other responsibilities to see to during the day, you know this!"

Une crossed her arms over her chest,

"I was the one who ordered the nukes set off. I'm sure you've set her quite straight on that."

Trieze would have been in tears by now if he hadn't disconnected from the system, he dropped his head into his hands,

"Une... Midi... I need you. I still need you. You can not really expect me to be able to raise Mari all on my own?"

"Why not? It's not like you don't go and over rule every decision I make about the girl. She is _your_ daughter, not mine! I have a very important job now, you know? Its not like how things USED to be; where my only responsibility was looking after _you_ and Dermail could go run the world any way he wants! The fairy tale is over, people actually have to put in hard work to make things happen now! Also, are you crazy or something? I have absolutely no nurturing instincts in me! Several years experience in espionage and military tactics does not exactly qualify me to be ANYONES mother!"

"So that's it then. Your job title is the only thing that is important to you. Fine, I can live with that, I just don't see whats so bad about us getting married. For gods sakes my father grew up with his mother in the West wing and father in the East – they hated each other but they still made it work! Are you really going to force all this embarrassment on me just because your having bridal anxiety!"

"Force all this embarrassment on you? Do you even listen to yourself when you talk Trieze! From my first impression I had you summed up to a cue, ever since then it's like I've just let myself fall further and further into your lie. Maybe I just want to be free now too? Could you ever even think of that?"

"I thought we were going to be free _together_, Lady Une." Une snapped, she wrenched the diamond and blue sapphire ring from her finger and hurled it at his feet and stormed to the door. "Wait! Une! Don't –!" Trieze ran after her and grabbed onto her arm just as she threw open the massive hardwood front door.

The last thing he saw before being knocked out cold was her fist flying at his face. He awoke some time later still on the floor with Mari sitting over him, looking concerned and holding Une's ring in her hand.

* * *

...The next day...

For Lady Une to be in 'a mood' was nothing out of the ordinary.

The real tell tale sign that something was terribly amiss was the fact that Milliardo was horribly hung over on a Wednesday. He spent the first half of the day with the lights off and his head plastered to the desk under a pillow he kept in his office for just such occasions. Lunch was the first time anyone spotted him out of his office wearing a pair of aviators, coat collar turned up, sipping at a black triple espresso.

"Whoa, you look like shit man!" Duo flipped a chair around across from Milliardo, who winced at the sound of his high-energy voice. "Ms. Noin get feeling feisty last night or what?"

"I wish..." Milliardo groaned, "Une broke off the wedding."

"So whats that got to do with you?"

"Nothing. Trieze called Noin. She babysat Mari while I had to keep him '_company_'."

"Better then the other way around right?" Duo was trying to be cheerful and, as usual, his huge grin was making things worse.

Milliardo only gave him a dead stare behind the tinted shades. A shadow fell across the table and even with the dark glasses on he was squinting at the back-lit form towering above the table.

"Where is Trieze." it was Lady Une.

"Staying home probably." Milliardo replied with a bite to his tone.

She let out a frustrated growl and stalked off.

"Oh boy... I really don't know how you Ozzies managed before with her like that all the time..."

Milliardo pushed the coffee in front of him further away on the table as he put his forehead down, giving out a long sigh in the process,

"Remember New Edwards? Siberia? Trust me, we have no idea how we survived that woman either." He finally decide to drain the rest of his drink and got up, tossing his white blond locks back into place with a shake of his head.

"Yeash! This can't be good... hey where are you going?"

Milliardo threw up a dismissive hand as he started walking away,

"Evidence room to watch Trieze scream for awhile before the afternoon meeting... I think I need the moral boost."

Duo was stuck twitching in a somewhat disturbed shock,

"Glad **I** don't have friends like that..."

* * *

_The master bedroom of the East wing_...

Trieze heard the alarming beeping noise of his bedside vid-screen through the fog of unconsciousness.

He knew what the sound was. He could guess what time it was. He KNEW who it was, but he also knew there was no way in hell he was going to answer it.

Not the first time she called at least. By that point it was just too easy to listen to it complain in it's rhythmic chiming way... he could have even passed back into a dream before he finally... turned over.

He could see the clock now. The text on the screen detailing the caller, the number of times they'd called – the number of times they'd attempted to override the lock and activate his screen directly. That brought a haphazard drowsy grin to Trieze's face; Mobile Doll AI structure was at least good for something, as his external processor's blue LED lights blinked away on the nightstand and another attempt was logged.

It was time, he thought, to consider actually answering the phone...

...maybe.

Trieze let out a long sigh as he dragged himself with one arm to the edge of his large silken-sheet bed to retrieve his interface lenses from the night stand. Putting them on he closed down the defense protocols and activated 'voice only' on the vid-unit before just...

Waiting...not saying anything.

"_Trieze?" _There was a pause. _"TRIEZE! KHUSHRENADA! Jesus Christ! Will you just answer your FUCKING PHONE!" _she sounded almost on the verge of tears.

"Elegance, as usual, is not your strong point today; is it Midi Une? You should know you would have better luck trying a number in Nazareth then my bed chamber if that's who your desperate for." He got up and stretched letting out a low grunt. The thought hardly had to be formed before his system activated the bath faucets as he crossed to his window to pull the heavy curtains back and blink through the sting of the full noon sun.

"_Isn't that just hilarious. Now exactly WHAT do you think your doing?"_

"I beg your pardon?" He flipped the latch up and opened the door-like glass enjoying the early spell of warm weather.

"_There's a Administrative Analysis meeting in an hour to collate the proposed procedures for local level jurisdiction overlap; how do you expect us to achieve YOUR proposal without YOUR report?"_

"It's in my outbox, on my desk, where you always find my reports."

"_It is not my job to _retrieve _things from your outbox, Trieze. It IS your job to be here to put things in my in-box! Are you coming in or NOT?"_

Trieze leaned back to look beyond the billowing curtains to the side to see his reflection in the mirror. Chuckling silently, despite affirming the ruined state of his appearance, he thought; 'Sorry Une... You said it wasn't my job to be coming in your in-box anymore.'

What he actually said was;

"No, I don't really think that would be possible. I've already altered my schedule for the next week or –"

"_Yes, I can SEE that! Are you REALLY going to be THIS ridicules? Your an adult Trieze, you don't have to stay home moping for a week just because I'm breaking up with you!"_

Trieze coughed at the interruption as he crossed to the bathroom now that the tub was full dropping his silken pants before entering,

"If your going to be that forward about it... I do not think I _will be_ staying home moping, but I _do not think_ it would be a good idea for me to _come in_. For one, you obviously need the space –" she cut him off again.

"_You do not know what _I need,_ Trieze Khushrenada, nor should you assume to tell me! What I want, and what WILL _happen,_ is you will get yourself into your office and hand deliver that report to that meeting in an hour! Then you will proceed to correct your schedule back the way it was and get your work done LIKE YOUR SUPPOSED TO!"_

Trieze sighed sliding down further into the hot water closing his eyes,

"Does that mean the wedding is back on darling?" If he had been in front of the Vid-screen she would have seen the twisted snarl behind his sweet, sugar-drop tone.

"_NO!" _The phone line disconnected.

"Worth a try..." He yawned and stretched again setting the glasses on the floor. Submerging completely he wished he could stay in that muffled lucid world forever, but sure enough he had been given a direct order by the Lieutenant Colonel herself...

He got out eventually and did his best, with one eye swollen and badly bruised, to look good for work.

It was going to be one hell of a Jurisdiction Overlap Analysis Meeting.


	3. Into the Night that Grins

**Into The Night That Grins... **As in... Go read "Night Grinned Viciously Back" in the Cowboy Bebop/ Gundam Wing Crossover section. (Rated M for everything.)

* * *

_Back at HQ..._

Hilde had stopped in to have lunch with Duo at the headquarters; they'd been joined by Heero, Trowa and Wufei at one of the round tables in the cafeteria by the time Noin came in looking for Milliardo,

"Anyone see a zombie around here? Tall, blond, most likely wearing shades?"

"Yeah, Une scared him off to the evidence room." Duo offered, then had a thought, "Hey, you need any investigating done in the Colonies like, right now?"

"Not particularly, why do you ask?" Noin frowned deciding to sit down and take a break.

"Because I re_-hehe-_ally don't want to go to that meeting this afternoon. It's giving me all sorts of bad ju-ju thinking about being trapped in a room with that woman AT ALL right now." The three other ex-pilots at the table couldn't help agreeing with him, even if they were never ones to complain, sharing a heavy silence and shifting glances.

Noin laughed unperturbed, she'd been slapped by the lady before and still come out on top,

"Oh don't worry about it, she's bound to be snappier then usual but I think Trieze is the only one _in danger_ right now. You should have seen his shiner."

"I hope your right..." Duo grumbled as Hilde rubbed his back reassuringly.

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you Mr. Maxwell. Suppose I should have checked where they were serving food first, huh?" Sally came over wearing her white lab coat, "I have something for you. You might want to consider taking a peek at it in private though..." She handed him a manilla envelope large enough for legal sized paper to fit inside.

"Ooo! What is it?" Duo turned it over fascinated by the mystery, searching for external clues.

"It would be the results from the tests we have to run as part of the employee registration. Yours is done early since you had stopped by a day before, everything is all clear, no worries there. I just don't know how surprising some of the results might be. I'm sure you remember how we've had previous _incidents_." She coughed, but despite her caution Duo was already flipping through the forms.

"Oh, do I!" He laughed, "Man, do I wish someone had a camera out when Zechs tackled him! I can only imagine –" Duo suddenly stopped and frowned, "WHAT!"

Sally exhaled sharply crouching down next to Duo,

"Duo, now before you panic, keep in mind that they've already completely changed how genetic alterations are regulated. Those are the old numbers from the old system, like I said everything is all clear we should have your clearance cards done by tomorrow."

Trowa and Hilde leaned in with peaked interest, holding back from actually looking at what was on the page. Wu Fei bowed his head and offered a silent blessing to his own fortune, and hope that Duo's would find a way to turn around whatever hardship this revelation was about to bring. Heero... stared stoney faced at the manilla envelope, his thoughts as locked as ever.

"No, no... this can't be right, FIFTEEN percent? If I have 15% Proto-sequencing I should be able to jump over buildings! Or I don't know at least jump OFF of them and not get hurt, or like be able to survive super big explosions! And there is no way in HELL that I could have this glorious personality! Come on Sally, your flattering me here but I think your machine is broke! Either that, or you got mine mixed up with Heero's!" He started laughing again, nervously this time.

"Everyone else's will take another day to process. Most Colonist's usually have one or two percent just from the required immunization for an artificial womb, it's most likely repairs to correct per-dispositions you had." she swallowed and tried to lighten her tone, "I know I really shouldn't be telling... but even Trieze came up at least three percent, which isn't really a surprise, considering he doesn't grow any facial hair."

Heero silently excused himself from the table.

"Wait a minute, really?" Noin knit her brow in puzzlement, "I thought he just obsessively shaves?" Sally shook her head.

"Come on guys! Like I care if the old Alliance system would have...meant..." It was like a puppy ignoring the leash attached to his collar and gleefully bolting the distance of its length, to be predictably stopped short, as his face dropped into an ashen gloom; eyes fixed on that approximately rounded, comparative, totality. He didn't even notice that he whispered aloud, "...so that's why they left me."

15 had been the strict cut off point that started being enforced by the Alliance starting in AC180 regarding work applications, travel visas, marriage licenses, child support and most government financed privileges, like public education. The sequence percentages were just one of the many tools that had been used to exploit the space dwelling population, especially since such questions were never even asked of anyone on Earth. It had been a primary part of the message of change that the Sank Kingdom began promoting, forcing the Alliance to take actions to silence it.

"Oh Duo! Don't be sad, it's too scary!" Hilde quickly smothered him in a hug which he accepted gratefully. Coming around he started to give a strained laugh.

"Well, heh, looks like I found that excuse after all, huh... I'm gonna... you should..." Duo stuffed the papers back away, "I'm taking the rest of the day off, lets go look after Mari or whatever you were going to do, girl... Peace out guys." He shuffled Hilde along in front of him eager to escape outside.

"I hope he's going to be alright..." Sally sighed, standing, worried.

"You shouldn't take so much responsibility for how others deal with your news Ms. Po, it distracts you from your own duty." Wu Fei offered in sagely comfort, secure in the knowledge of exactly how untampered with his genetics were.

"Duo does have a way of turning things around no matter what." Trowa admitted, "I might have been orphaned as well, but I doubt I'll be finding any surprises myself since I started out on Earth after all."

"If anything we should be a envious that he's lucky enough to have a valid reason for skipping the meeting this afternoon..." Noin tried to lighten the mood a bit; feeling more and more of the impending doom that the others had caught wind of.

"Oh..." Sally shifted on her feet, "about that... Um, do tell Une that getting all the employee information logged is taking a lot more time then I thought, so I won't be making it."

"That wouldn't be a guilty conscious speaking now, would it Ms. Po?" Trowa casually probed. Sally blushed angrily.

"I don't go around parading my opinions or letting them interfere with my work like _some people_, but I will admit I have always _hated_ that man. She's just kidding herself if she thinks I'd go along with some secret love affair with _him_." She gave an exasperated shake of her twists, stalking back off to the medical wing.

"Well..." Noin looked at Wu Fei and Trowa across the table, "If Heero is still coming, looks like it will mostly just be Milliardo and us... I really hope Trieze doesn't change his mind about staying home. Those two in the same room is about the last thing any of us needs today..."

* * *

Milliardo had finally started to recover enough from the night before to take off the aviators while he sat in the darkened room reviewing the evidence tapes they'd collected from 'the facility'. He was concentrating his scan on the last DVD in the _13_ collection. It was all so much of the same... the strange way that it all seemed so predictable, so logical... worse... worse... make everything worse... it was like some absurd puppet show.

Played out for who though? Dermail seemed the logical choice... but there was something more to this. The time lapses between 'scenes' were impossible to judge, even if the amount of time Trieze had been 'off the radar' was known. It just wasn't clear how Trieze had managed to actually just LEAVE that level of security after having been so OBVIOUSLY subjected to a lengthy period of ongoing torture!

So, what facts do we have... There was a mysterious 3rd party neither Alliance nor OZ present in the Romefeller guard ranks at sporadic times that seem to have been connect to this operation. Could their payment have been compromised in some way? That would mean the release was intentional... the 'destruction' of the rest of the 'goods', would make it spiteful... If this 3rd party was even responsible for the 'clean up', and it didn't explain why the video's were left untouched.

New thread, Romefeller, represented by Duke Dermail became unsatisfied with services provided by 3rd party and decided to 'clean things up'. This does not explain Trieze's release to the Sank Kingdom... Unless Dorothy was the one intervening. This was a definite possibility. But again, why leave the library?

Duo's hypothesis the other day that they were injecting him with strange chemicals which slowly morphed him into a super being with fire breathing abilities causing him to go berserk and turn on his captors and fellow prisoners, SHREADING THEM LIMB FROM LIMB AND DEVOR- !

Zechs had cut him off there and told him to stop using the Chemical ventilation 'hood' in the lab for recreational purposes.

It was a terrible theory. (((Windwraith's Dragon Fei is a way better theory, along those lines (Wu Fei, Duh), but totally different & serious. Had to add that after rereading, cuz I didn't want it to be assumed as a reference to that accidentally! And then figured, eh, free advertising for ya =P)))

They had been administering some sort of drugs to him, that much was for sure. First the test pilot of the Z-PLCs and then much later when he was finally 'Promoted'. Une confessed her involvement in the chemical conditioning process; it was far more effective at keeping Trieze's ambitions in check at the time then he would like to admit. Considering the most recent turn of events in the two's relationship, in Zechs' opinion she could probably call it even on the guilt by now – he wouldn't have gotten anywhere without her help.

Wait.

What was that? He rewound the file and set it to play slower this time... it wasn't that far from the end...

...one of the men, while the others were setting up for the next session, started tossing buckets of water over Trieze's tattered body... he gave him something, it was definite, something pill sized was pushed past his lips as his head was forced back and the bucked of cool water was upended over his face.

On the screen the very lean man dressed in black like the others, wearing a hood like the others... unlike the others... removed it most of the way... just for a second...

...And grinned, Viciously; his colorless eyes staring at the camera through a white veil of hair. Milliardo put his finger on the screen and traced along following his unremarkable form among the others... until it slipped out early once the abuse began again.

New Theory...

...there is a 4th party, that does not like the 3rd party, nor does it like that the 2nd party is giving the 3rd party money... and is going to be wanting the 1st party to pay up for the favor. If Milliardo wasn't mistaken, the hand gesture had read: At The Earliest Convenience.

Now how to actually prove it... He was definitely hoping they would be able to get the Overlap Jurisdiction deal worked out with the local authorities before next week, they would have much more revealing domestic information on the matter then was available through their own military focused methods.

_Oh no._.. he groaned aloud checking the clock...

...it was time...for the meeting.

He packed everything back under lock and key before getting ready to face Round 2.

* * *

_...da meeting..._

No doubt "Lady" Une was on edge; she had cued up the highlight presentation, covering the known points of contention between the two different enforcement levels in the current agreement,

and now sat with her legs crossed at the front desk – tapping a pen impatiently with one hand, flipping forcefully back and forth through a packet of papers in a binder with the other. The four from the lunch table and Milliardo filtered into the room.

The pen stopped, she looked up at Noin and Milliardo,

"When are we expecting Mr. Maxwell? And Ms. Po?"

"They won't be arriving." Milliardo intoned.

"Duo's taking a personal day and Sally is trying to finish the employee registry information." Noin expanded for her.

"Well then," she gave a heavy sigh, "I guess we might as well get started and just _see_ if _his Excellency_ decides to –" Une hardly had to finish speaking as the thick wood door burst open and Trieze swept into the room with an indignant flourish; wearing a pair of dark aviators.

"Decides to _what?_ Ms. Une? Flatter to your whims? Cater to your ego?"

The assembled group gave a heavy groan, this was not the place, or the time for domestics – like either of _those two_ knew the difference any more!

Wu Fei considered leaving outright rather than see such a disgraceful display, but surly Heero would speak up and put an end to it before it got out of control. Then again, it was unclear if Heero was waiting for his moment or simply locked away dealing with issues in his own internal world. Milliardo knew better then to get involved.

"This is not about me, Trieze! This is about seeing that _this_ organization is able to continue to operate smoothly! _We_ can not be expected to flatter _your_ whims!" Une got to her feet planting both hands on her desk.

"Did you ever think that perhaps seeing that _this _organization is operated smoothly IS my goal as well? Besides there is nothing more _whimsical_ at work here other then _your_ raging mood-swings and paranoid accusations!"

"How dare you call _me_ paranoid with raging mood-swings when you have to hide your face behind a pair of sunglasses because you decided to go on a liquor binge the night before! Do you even have any recollection of what happened to your face, or were you simply too inebriated?" Une asked genuinely unsuspecting of her own involvement.

"What happened to my face..." Trieze ripped off the glasses to expose the deep purple and swollen eye, "YOU! You happened to my face! Do you not _remember_ putting your fist into it before storming out of my home? Perhaps _THAT_ is a far greater source of concern here, my _dear_ _lady_!" Trieze was even more flustered now, he was also growing concerned as to what exactly was going ON with the woman! Puzzling creatures sometimes, maybe; but outright lunacy to this extent is still an unnatural thing.

Une seemed equally confused, taken aback as she tried to search her memories of the emotionally charged exchange the previous afternoon.

"That... I... Well, you deserved it!"

"FOR WHAT! Wanting to _marry_ you?" Trieze veritably threw the report packet he'd brought with him at her, it's various stapled and paper clipped sections coming apart to scatter.

"No! For being a self absorbed asshole! You went and made yourself some big hero during the war and think just because the killing is over you can sit back and lord over everyone else, like there is something that makes you _special_, like you've earned your forgiveness for all the people who died for your sake! Yet, we're not even close to making a lasting peace! Everyone _but you _seems to understand that!" Une was almost shaking with emotion.

"I understand exactly how fragile peace is," Trieze's lip was curling into a snarl as he advanced on her, "what I don't understand is what they are doing expecting some _woman_ who claims she's unfit to even look after a child, to 'raise' and protect world peace! Here you are rejecting me for being disloyal in my interests and using others to glorify my own ends; but I **can **tell you _exactly _how many died fighting _my_ war... while you probably can't even start to guess at how many cocks you've throated to get where you are now; can you, Midi?"

That was crossing the line. Une flipped her binder of papers into his face causing another flurry of white sheets as she fled from the room.

"What?" Trieze growled at the remaining audience's shocked faces, "She's lucky I'm not pressing assault charges." Replacing the large dark glasses he left the room himself.

Milliardo cleared his throat, getting up from his chair,

"With the dramatic prelude over, shall we get to the feature presentation?"

Trowa helped him collect the scattered notes and drafted proposals so they could get to work.

* * *

**Desolation City...**

Well everyone who was reading this is too busy with finals (that should be ending now)... sooooo, yeah plans changed and I'm taking my time. Cuz you all made me sad, shame shame. (not you Cynth, you're like super-champ excused for all your enthusiasm. LoL) Delays the other two stories new sections coming out, but they are still coming.

This is AC 197, some of the stuff at play with Une does hint at things covered in QKBLR, as well as TPoYI...and then next is FINALLY the end of the AC175 thing so we can get onto the main story... its exciting super-villain transformation stuff... huh, you could almost say this part is super-villain undoing... Omoshiroi...

* * *

_AC 197...Preventors HQ... 10pm..._

Milliardo pulled and rubbed at his face trying to remove the fatigued feeling from it to no avail.

Without Trieze or Une being much help at the moment it was up to him, again, to try and keep things moving forwards to accomplish that months administrative goals. His desk was piled with papers and reference manuals to the intricate ins-and-outs of the current legal agreement – it was getting to the point where the pool of papers had become an indistinguishable conglomerate... when he spotted Lady Une pass by his doorway.

Intrigued, he quietly went to peek out into the hallway and spotted her sliding something under Noin's door before she continued her way down the hall.

_Now that's strange_, he thought as he crept over keeping an eye down the way she'd disappeared. Kneeling down he was able to use his slender fingers to pull back out the sheet of paper with a note attached and a key laying on top. The key to Lady Une's city flat about two blocks away... the paper was a copy of her resignation form;

The note only had three words: "Take it all."

* * *

_...Lady Une's city flat..._

Une threw her bags and coat down on the floor next to the door before slumping in a leather chair. On the bookshelf across from her in the modest living room, the bottle of red wine leered down at her.

It had been one of his wine bottles... the one he had left by her bedside while she lay in a coma. During the months following the end of the Last Battle it had seemed as if it were filled with the spiritual equivalent of his blood; his last remains on this Earth. Now she knew what a foolish thing that was to think...

So... how was she going to do this?

She pushed herself up out of the chair, crossing the room to take the vacated shrine from its alter. Feeling its familiar weight she caressed its form, letting her fingers follow the flourishes of the script upon it's label, wistfully longing for the return of the comfort it once brought her.

Une took a bottle opener and a crystal goblet with her into the bathroom. There was a haunting question she'd been ignoring for weeks, and now the time had come to find out...

...how bad the situation really was.

* * *

_...Also at Lady Une's city flat..._

Milliardo looked up at the highrise apartment building that Une lived in as a light drizzle began to fall from the night sky. Turning up the collar on his khaki trench coat he hurried across the street to the main entrance. When he finally reached her floor, he walked like a breath of wind down the hall; listening for any clues as he approached her door.

Instead of knocking, he slid the key into the lock as he strained to catch any sound escaping from the flat beyond. A familiar feeling was building up on his spine, a foreboding suspicion of what he may find as he undid the lock and slowly pushed the door in.

There was a steamy perfume in the air emanating from the bathroom off of the main room – From the gentle occasional splashes it sounded like Lady Une was taking a bath...

...Une was in the bath with the wine bottle barely drunk on the floor beside it. She had a pen knife pressed up against her skin...but she couldn't figure out where to start, how to sink the razor edge down – she felt a presence with her in the room and then...

"...and exactly how red were you expecting the water to get before somebody arrived?" Une did cut herself in her surprise, she dropped the knife in the tub as she grasped at her wrist; Milliardo had his back to her leaning on the outside of the open doorway. "Really I'm disappointed in you, Midi Une. Your much better then this. It's more of something I would expect from Trieze."

"What are you doing here!" She kept her arms firmly covering her breasts.

"You left something." Milliardo held up not only the copy of the resignation form but the original she'd left under the ESUN President's door for her to see; giving her a sidelong look over his shoulder.

"Put them back, you don't understand..." drawing her knees up she looked away, unable to ignore the fluttering doubt that she didn't even understand what she was doing.

"Maybe I don't... but what I can understand is that a highly qualified and capable head administrator has decided to throw away everything she struggled for... just because some rich asshole doesn't know how to take being told that he can't have things his way."

"He's right though... we need to be married, we can't afford to wait even the two months to the wedding..." Tears began to drip from her lashes once more. Milliard frowned, he did turn now to regard her with puzzlement.

"Then why would you ever want to postpone...ah." he trailed off finally noticing the object missing from the scene... all three of them really, all lined up on the bathroom sink, all of them showing an unavoidable positive result. "When did you first find out?"

"Just now."

"How long have you suspected?" he came in and picked up one of the pregnancy tests.

"Month... two... I don't know, I've just had too much to do..." She buried her face in her knees, still keeping pressure on the fresh wound.

"So that's why you've been so high strung. Trieze knows nothing about this, does he?" Milliard crouched next to her, virtually oblivious to her nudity. She shook her head. "Good, you probably shouldn't tell him yet."

"Oh? Really? Do you think?" she let out a stunted laugh, before the tears came harder and her body was taken by sobs.

"Une... you don't need him. You just need somebody to help you through this, it isn't the end of everything." Hesitantly he leaned out over the tub to enveloped her in a warming hug, his blond hair falling like a curtain around her as he pulled her into his chest.

"Why? Why would you want to help me?"

Milliardo sighed,

"Truthfully? Because I just spent six hours just trying to get up to speed on everything you and Trieze have already got done on the new proposal... I'm not looking forward to spending an extra month drafting up this report without you. Especially since that means it'll miss its deadline by a long-shot leaving us all dead in the water while the criminals run amok." He spotted the knife through the drifting clusters of bubbles and moved back to give her some room; reaching down to extract it using one hand to hold back his coat & shirt cuff as the other made the dive. "Please Une? Let me put a bandage on that and lets talk about this in the other room... do you want your towel?"

"It's the green one." she reached out and unlatched the drain to release the water. Milliardo handed her the towel, careful to keep his eyes from lingering on her pale muscular body, then opened the cabinet in search of something for her wound. "Milliardo... I just... I don't even know why I've felt so compelled to go and destroy everything! It is like the world is just so unreal now... nothing makes sense anymore... How can any of this possibly be made right again!"

Une modestly slid up to sit on the side of the tub to wrap the towel about herself, conscious of the fully clothed and coated state of her visitor. Milliard had found what was needed in a box kit she kept and sat next to her on the tub edge to see about dressing the wound.

"Oh, trust me Une... say the word and I'll have him begging at your feet for forgiveness." The wide grin on his face... strangely was very comforting to her. She felt drawn towards him, but his eyes flashed a warning and she stopped. "...I'm sorry. I'm just not like him."

Still he put a hand against her cheek, his thumb lightly brushed across her dry lips.

* * *

_...The next day at Headquarters..._

Milliardo had insisted Trieze come into the office to double check the work he'd done. As soon as he had a second to survey the complete jumbled pile of paperwork that had apparently been simply dumped in the approximate vicinity of his desk, Trieze could only guess what he had meant was 'I give up. Your turn.'

In actuality the distracting task of sorting through the thousands of mixed pages and folders was all Milliardo had really been after...

...we follow now... two pairs of high heels, one black and one magenta, as they click across the entrance hall floor...

A set of brief cases and coats get checked through security... and the two pairs of heels make their way up the short flight of steps to the elevators, where they wait patiently for the doors to open.

Arriving at the correct floor, their way unbarred by the hydraulic doors, they continue down the red carpeted hall...

To an office.

Trieze's office.

The door opens and he turns, hands full of paperwork he's nearly done sorting back into their proper order... because of course Milliardo hardly wanted to do that part himself... and hardly needed to be there for the next stage of his little scheme to work either.

"Can I help y..." Trieze's eyes went wide as he suddenly saw through the years of the two young women who stood before him, "KATJA? SAMANTHA? What are you..!" The two girls held up a fan of DVDs and a photo album respectively. His excitement at the reunion dropped into dead horror. "...Oh Fuck."

Sure enough...

All Une had to do is sit back in her office relaxing that day...

And Trieze came running with a trillion apologies, begging for her help.


End file.
